


Grace and Abby Wambach

by EverShadow



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 03:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/629782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverShadow/pseuds/EverShadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex and Abby's relationship during the Ballon D'or ceremony. Drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grace and Abby Wambach

 It’s already been a half an hour since Alex Morgan was supposed to arrive. Luckily, FIFA’s press conference wisely built in time for any mishaps, technical difficulties, or missing players. Abby checks her watch again and then her phone. Alex hasn’t answered any of her calls, nor any of her texts.

“She needs to be here,” one of the coordinators hisses, moving his mic away from his mouth to do so. Abby puts her hands up and motions for him to calm down.

“I’ll go get her.”

Alex’s room is quiet when she approaches the door, and it’s slightly ajar too.

“Alex?” Abby says before pushing the door open. The door only opens a little before something blocks it, Abby squeezes on by, and stares at the ravaged room. For a second, her heart stops, it looks like someone’s ransacked everything. Her steps are rushed when she sees Alex’s legs dangling off the bed.

“Alex,” she tries not to sound too urgent when she rounds the corner. When she sees Alex, face up and staring blankly at the ceiling, groaning to show her displeasure, she can’t help but let out a relieved laugh. “What are you doing?”

“I tried to pick out an outfit, but then I didn’t know what to wear,” Alex replied. She pulls a pillow to her face and turns until she’s face down. Abby sits on the bed with her.

“You ok?”

“I just...I don’t know what to wear, I don’t know if what I’m wearing is too casual, or too fancy...” She’s rambling now, and Abby places a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

“You’ll be fine,” she whispers comfortingly and Alex believes her. It’s a little funny, that Alex, whose confidence and drive got her here, should dissolve into the wide eyed, stammering rookie Abby remembers from years ago.

Alex takes a deep breath and looks at Abby, at the woman who lifted her onto her shoulders and carried her all the way here. I have so much to learn, Alex thinks. She’s already a champion on the field, but off? She has no idea how to handle herself.

She’s sure she’s going to cry if she wins, but Abby won’t, she knows that. Abby will just look at her and say that the award belonged to the whole team. And Alex wants to learn that humility.

Pia once said, “you learn more from losing.” A part of Alex wants to lose so that when she watches Abby, with her words clear and her smile bright, it sticks in her mind so that when she, a year or years later, accepts that award, she’ll remember. Abby may not have been the most skilled on the field, no, that was left to the likes of Rapinoe and Heath. But off the field, she had an unwavering grace in the public’s eye. She knew how to act, what to say, how to present herself in the best way possible. Abby picks up a shirt, a nice, white, striped v-neck.

“You’ll look amazing, you always do.” The way Abby’s eyes glimmer with pride, and knowing that pride stems from seeing her come so far in such a short time, Alex’s heart flutters a little, and it’s not entirely because of nervousness.

 ~**~

Alex cries anyway, when Abby wins and stands up there, doing exactly what Alex knew she was going to do. She kept her speech short, simple and never about her. She thanked the team, she thanked everyone, she never once talking about herself, never once acknowledging that she’d worked hard, or played well. It was always about everyone else. _That is what I want to be._ Alex thinks as she claps for much longer than anyone else in the room.

Abby sits alone, ages after the party ends, and all the reporters finally go home. She sits alone with her trophy right behind her and Alex finds her hunched over, her shirt and jacket ajar, and her hair a mess.

“Hey you, best player in the world.” Without missing a beat, Abby replies,

“Should’ve been you.” There’s a tiredness in her eyes that she tries to rub away with her palms. “We never would’ve made it to the final for a lot of things if it wasn’t for you.” Alex places her hand on Abby’s much larger ones and Abby leans her weight into Alex.

“I’m wouldn’t be half the player I am today if it hadn’t been for you.” She says quietly. Abby rests her head on Alex’s shoulder and sighs. Her eyes drift closed and she stays like that for a minute that Alex does not want to end. Her heart is fluttering again.

Without thinking it through, she leans over and presses her lips to Abby. Abby neither pushes her away nor kisses her back.

“I love you, Abby.” Alex says so softly she’s not sure that, even with their proximity, Abby can hear her. She does, whether as a mentor, or as a teammate, or as something she can’t quite put a word to it, she does with all her heart. Abby’s eyes remain closed but she breaks out into a grin.

“Should have been you.”


End file.
